


A Final Goodbye

by stormwatch09



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:48:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24265384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormwatch09/pseuds/stormwatch09
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	A Final Goodbye

Harry walked slowly down the stairs to see his aunt standing in the empty living room, the frustration of having to leave her home apparent in her face. He couldn’t remember the last time he saw it this empty. He couldn’t remember the last time he really took a look at this place, though. The walls, now bare, once held portraits of Dudley beaming from each year in school. They also held Petunia and Vernon’s wedding photo. Everything that made this house so dreadful to Harry had been taken out, awaiting the Dursleys’ move towards safety. Harry didn’t know where they were going and a part of him was happy he didn’t. He would finally be completely free from the terror the Dursleys caused him since he had shown up at their doorstep, all those years ago.

“I’ve lived here for twenty years, you know. I made a life here. Dudley grew up here.”

“I know that, but you know what these people can do,” said Harry losing his cool demeanor as more time passed. He knew he shouldn’t have said that but the second the words came out of his mouth, he knew it was too late.

“You don’t think I know what they’re capable of?” spat Petunia. “You didn’t just lose a mother that night in Godric’s Hollow. I lost a sister. I lost my best friend. I lost…” Petunia trailed off visibly holding back tears.

Harry stared at her, both shocked to see any emotion come from her and ashamed that he never thought about the fact that his mother’s death also deeply affected others who knew her, especially his aunt. The anger from the lies his aunt and uncle told about his parents’ death having melted away as the last six years of his life have been one trial after another. After watching his mentor fall to his death, facing his own death more times than he wanted to, and ultimately never being able to go back to Hogwarts until defeating Voldemort, the Dursley’s lies felt almost irrelevant to Harry. He lost his home at Hogwarts, so he knew exactly how his aunt was feeling.

Petunia walked past Harry beckoning him to follow her to the kitchen where the last pieces of furniture were.

Harry thought back to all the times he was in this kitchen over the years. Many of them awful from the years of ongoing abuse the Dursley’s doled out before he went to Hogwarts and his whole life changed. But this felt different. More personal. Intimate almost. Something he wasn't used to within the walls of 4 Privet Drive.

“You know, me and your mother were inseparable growing up. I adored her, and I like to think she looked up to me, too. She was my best friend,” Petunia sighed heavily.

Harry had never heard his aunt talk about his mother in such a positive way. He waited anxiously, wanting to hear more but worried about how this delay could affect their getaway. Aside from what Sirius and Lupin had told him, he never knew much about his mother and her childhood and he waited to see if Petunia would tell him more.

Petunia stared down at her hands, wringing them, looking for the right words.

“When she got her letter, I was so happy for her! She was always so special, and she was finally getting recognized for it. Lily would sit in my room and we would talk every day about what she’d do at Hogwarts, who she’d meet, what she’d learn. We were both so excited. But I think one day it finally hit me. I wouldn’t be going with her and this summer was truly the last time Lily was the sister I remembered. I got so angry that I couldn’t go, and I took it out on her. I said those nasty things just before she left. I never let go of my anger. I let her go without a fight. I should have fought harder” remorse filled Petunia’s face, but immediately vanished.

“She met that blasted James -”

“Do not talk about my father that way!” Harry yelled, standing, ready to defend his father’s name.

“Oh hush, boy. Sit down and listen to me.”

Harry slowly sat down, his curiosity about his mother’s life getting the better of him.

“Like I was saying, she met James, and then she changed completely. She wasn’t my Lily. She became distant and I loathed that. Why did she have to change?” Petunia paused for a second wiping at her face.

“How did she change?”

“You know that feeling when you can feel yourself losing importance to someone? The feelings of being unwanted and pushed away. Vernon did not like the boy very much, but he also didn’t understand the wizarding world. He still doesn’t if I’m being honest. But that directly translated into the relationship I had with my sister. She had to protect their relationship from Vernon and the awful things he could say and that meant that they didn’t come around here very often. You know how he can be, Harry. She had to protect the wizarding world, too. I never knew how much bigger their secret was than just myself. I never really knew how much danger she could really be in if too many people knew about her magical abilities. Thinking back on it, I was selfish when it came to my sister, but I had every right to be! She was my sister. We had been best friends since the start and I was losing her to a boy? I couldn’t bear it. Why did James get to have her all of the time when I was the one who grew up with her? I’ve known her since the beginning! It wasn’t fair. It still isn’t, though, because I never got to tell them how much I truly did love them and wished them all the best. I guess I never proved my love after their deaths anyway, huh?”

“What happened between the two of you?” Harry asked cautiously.

“She was something I could never understand. She had magic, she was different, and I wasn’t. She had a whole other world to live in and I never seemed as exciting to her after that.”

Petunia walked over to the window above the sink she would look out of to spy on the neighbors. She knew this would be the last time she would ever be able to do that.

“You know, once Lily had you, I thought things would go back to the way they were when we were younger. She was so happy to be having you. She loved you more than I thought she could ever love someone. Her death is the reason I treat Dudley like royalty. I don’t know what I would do if I ever lost him or he ever lost me.” Petunia looked Harry directly in his eyes with a softness he wasn’t used to in his aunt. Harry felt like he learned more about her in the past 15 minutes than he had in the sixteen years he had lived with them.

Harry watched as Petunia wiped away the tears that appeared at the corners of her eyes. Harry couldn’t help but think about the day he got his own letter to Hogwarts. The lengths his aunt and uncle had gone to make sure he never read it and subsequently never went to Hogwarts. They took him to a hut in the middle of the sea to prevent Harry from getting his letter for crying out loud!

Shakily, Harry asked, “Is that why you tried so hard to stop me from going to Hogwarts and discovering that I’m a wizard?”

Petunia looked back at Harry. She walked slowly back to where he was and took his hands into her own. Harry pulled his hands back on instinct and he immediately felt guilty. His aunt looked at him with understanding.

“I deserve that. I haven’t treated you in a way that respects Lily and her memory. I am so sorry, Harry.”

Harry felt an overwhelming urge to hug his aunt, something he had never felt towards his adoptive guardians, and if he was being honest, something that truly scared him. How had a 20-minute conversation softened him enough to make him want to hug Petunia? Petunia’s voice interrupted Harry’s thoughts.

“As you got older, I realized that you had my dear Lily’s eyes. Those eyes. It made me remember what I had lost when she left for Hogwarts, and I couldn’t bear to lose them again to that place. What if I had lost you? I never would have those eyes in my life again.” Petunia looked at Harry expectantly. Would they be able to mend their relationship? Would he be able to forgive her for all those years? He wasn’t sure, but he knew wanted to try since this would probably be the last time he would ever see the Dursleys.

Petunia reached out to Harry again. This time he took her hands, without hesitation. “You are the last thing connecting me to my sister since her death all of those years ago. You are the only thing that reminds me of who she was before Hogwarts and the wizarding world. You represent everything that could have been and that’s something I don’t have the power to deal with. I always missed Lily, I was just so... so angry that I couldn’t realize just how much I did. She was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.”

Harry knew his aunt needed to leave. He knew he needed to keep her safe now, but he felt something towards her that he had never felt. He wasn’t sure if this was love or respect or even indifference. He knew it wasn’t the usual contempt and resentment he had always associated with the Dursleys.

Petunia glanced down at her watch. By the look on her face, she knew she needed to leave but Harry hoped she would stay just a while longer. He couldn’t help himself, learning more about his mother and in the process more about his aunt. Harry never realized how little he knew about Petunia until he learned more about his mother.

“Do you think we have a little more time to talk?” Petunia questioned

Harry nodded.

Petunia opened her mouth to speak but then closed it. Harry wasn’t sure what that meant, but he didn’t have time to wonder. Just then Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle, the Order wizards in charge of transporting the Dursleys to their new home, apparated into the empty living room where Aunt Petunia had been just a few minutes ago. It hit Harry. This would be the last time he would see the aunt he had come to understand and maybe even love. This would truly be the last time she would look him in the eyes. In Lily’s eyes.

Dedalus and Hestia realized that Petunia was not ready to leave 4 Privet Drive. They rush her to finish her packing and say her final goodbyes to the house she made a home for most of her life. Petunia slowly walked around the house, making sure that she had grabbed everything she would need to help restart their lives wherever they decided to stop. 

Reluctantly, Petunia turned to Harry one last time.

“Dudley was right, you know? You aren’t a waste of space. You have truly been such a blessing for me to remember my connection to both my sister and the wizarding world. You are a special boy, Harry Potter. James and Lily would be so proud. I know I am.”

With that, Petunia walked out of the doors of 4 Privet Drive for the last time.

Harry watched as Petunia got into the car with an annoyed Vernon. She paid little attention to the things he was saying, instead focusing on the house and the boy with the eyes that looked exactly like her dear sister’s.


End file.
